A word here, a nudge there. And by bringing people together who might help each other.
It was an infuriating hint. Why couldn’t she have just said what she meant?
To find yer answer, ye must go back to where it all began.
What was that supposed to mean? Wherewhatbegan? Did she mean the pirate attacks?
Leaving the marriage contract unsigned on the table, he strode from the room. Checking his weapons were secure, he broke into an urgent jog.
Two hours later, Jamie pulled his horse to an abrupt halt, the beast’s big hooves sending up showers of mud. Around him, his men also reined in. In silence they slipped from their mounts, eased their weapons from scabbards, and proceeded on foot.
With quick hand signals, Jamie sent some of his men to the left, some to the right, to circle round to the beach from both directions. He walked straight on, flanked by his honor guard.
He glanced at the faces around him. They were all grim, determined. After all, they had done this kind of thing countless times before. Too many times, if truth be told. He wondered if there would ever be a time when his people were not caught in constant struggle, a time when he might be able to think of other things. A wife. A family. Was that too much to ask for?
He scowled, pushing away such thoughts. Now was not the time for them. Slowly, he and his men wove their way through the scrubby brush that bracketed the beach, placing their feet carefully so as not to tread on any sticks or dead branches and give away their position. Eventually the scrub receded and they came out onto the wind-scoured dunes, crouching to avoid being seen.
Ahead of them, the dunes descended to a wide, horseshoe beach. The tide was out, exposing the rock pools and kelp beds that would be under water later, and giving access to the hugeshelf of rock that rose straight up out of the water at high tide. This shelf of rock had once been a headland jutting out from the coastline but time and weather had eroded it so completely that part of it had collapsed, making it inaccessible from land except for now, at low tide.
It was riddled with caves. A perfect place for pirates to hide.
He squinted against the biting wind, trying to ignore the sand that blew into his face. Everything looked quiet, with nothing to suggest anything was amiss. There were no ships in the water, no marks in the sand that would indicate where a ship had been hauled up, no footprints of armed men.
Oh aye, it looked peaceful all right, but Jamie wasn’t about to be fooled by that.
Return to where it all started, Lir had told him, and that’s exactly what he’d done. This beach, and that spur of cave-riddled rock, was where all his troubles had begun.
It was from here that the pirates had first begun launching their attacks.
“What are yer orders, my laird?” Albie said. “Perhaps we should signal the attack, come at them from both sides.”
“No,” Jamie replied. “We dinna know what’s here yet.” He chewed his lip, eyes narrowing. “I’ll go take a look. Hold yer positions until I give the signal.”
Albie’s scowl told Jamie exactly what he thought of that order. “Not a chance. Ye canna go down there alone.”
“I can and I will,” Jamie growled. “I’ll not risk lives unless I have to. Wait here. Come only on my signal. Understood?”
Albie glared at him but then reluctantly nodded. “Aye, my laird.”
Jamie rose silently and then jogged down the far side of the sand dune and onto the beach. The wind whipped at him, sending his hair swirling around his head and the salt-tangburned his lips, but he squinted into the wind all the same, eyes fixed on the spur of rock.
As he approached, he found his grip tightening on his two-handed claymore. Lir had sent him here, and while all the reports he’d heard of her suggested she was a friend to the Kingdom of the Isles, he wasn’t naïve enough to think that gods and goddesses could be wholly trusted. He’d seen too much, experienced too much, for that.
So, as he padded towards the dark maw that gave entrance to the honeycombed interior of the rock spur, he called upon the icy calm that he slipped into before battle.
Whatever he might find in there, he’d be prepared.
Chapter Four
Elise felt amoment of utter panic. As the ground fell away before her, she was certain she was going to die. But the feeling passed almost immediately, to be replaced by a heady rush, like the sensation of being on a rollercoaster. In the next instant, this disappeared too and suddenly she crashed into cold, dark water and came up spluttering, gasping for air.
She couldn’t see a thing. All around her was nothing but cloying darkness. Yet from the way her coughing echoed back to her, she guessed she was in a stone chamber of some kind.
Stretching out a hand, she found a stone ledge not far away and she clasped it tightly, pulling herself over to it. The ledge seemed to circle the water like the lip of a well.
“Lir!” she shouted into the darkness. “Where are you?”
No answer came back. With a grunt, Elise got her elbows onto the stone rim and heaved herself up. She wriggled and slithered her way out of the water in a most inelegant fashion and then lay on her back, staring up in the darkness and hoping that her sight would adjust. It didn’t. The darkness remained impenetrable, as though a thick blanket had been thrown over her eyes.
